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Ken Mattingly
| birth_place =Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | alma_mater =Auburn University, B.S. 1958 | occupation =Naval aviator, test pilot | rank =Rear admiral (upper half), USN | selection =1966 NASA Group 5 | eva1 =1 | eva2 =1 hour 23 minutes | time =21d 04h 34m | mission =Apollo 16, STS-4, STS-51-C | insignia = | Date of ret =June 1985 | awards = |}} Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II (born March 17, 1936), (RADM, USN, Ret.), better known as Ken Mattingly, is a former American naval officer and aviator, flag officer, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, Rear Admiral in the United States Navy and astronaut who flew on the Apollo 16, STS-4 and STS-51-C missions. He had been scheduled to fly on Apollo 13, but was held back due to concerns about a potential illness (which he did not contract). He later flew as Command Module Pilot for Apollo 16, making him one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. Biography Early career and education Born March 17, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, Mattingly attended school in Hialeah, Florida, and was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He graduated from Miami Edison High School in 1954, and went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Auburn University in 1958. He was also a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity (Epsilon Alpha chapter).http://www.delts.org/about/famousdelts.html Retrieved 2012-02-19 He joined the U.S. Navy as an Ensign in 1958 and received his aviator wings in 1960. He was then assigned to Attack Squadron Thirty-five (VA-35) at NAS Oceana, Virginia and flew A-1H Skyraider aircraft aboard the aircraft carrier from 1960 to 1963. In July 1963, he served in Heavy Attack Squadron Eleven (VAH-11) at NAS Sanford, Florida, where he flew the A-3B Skywarrior aircraft for two years and deployed aboard . He has logged 7,200 hours of flight time—which includes 5,000 hours in jet aircraft. NASA career Mattingly was a student at the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California when NASA selected him as an astronaut in April 1966. Apollo 13 Mattingly's first assignment was to be the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 13 mission. Three days prior to launch, he was removed from the mission due to exposure to German measles (which he never contracted) and was replaced by the backup CM pilot, Jack Swigert. As a result, he missed the dramatic in-flight explosion that crippled the spacecraft. However, Mattingly was involved in helping the crew solve the problem of power conservation during re-entry.Lovell, Jim and Jeffrey Kluger, Lost moon : the perilous voyage of Apollo 13 (1994: Boston: Houghton Mifflin), p. 287. Apollo 16 The swapout from Apollo 13 placed Mattingly on the crew that would fly Apollo 16 (April 16–27, 1972), the fifth manned lunar landing mission. The crew included John W. Young (Commander), Mattingly (Command Module Pilot), and Charles M. Duke, Jr. (Lunar Module Pilot). It was Duke's German measles that led to the Mattingly-Swigert swap on Apollo 13. The mission assigned to Apollo 16 was to collect samples from the lunar highlands near the crater Descartes. While in lunar orbit the scientific instruments aboard the Command/Service Module Casper extended the photographic and geochemical mapping of a belt around the lunar equator. Twenty-six separate scientific experiments were conducted both in lunar orbit and during cislunar coast. Major emphasis was placed on using man as an orbital observer, capitalizing on the human eye's unique capabilities and man's inherent curiosity. During the return leg of the mission, Mattingly carried out an extravehicular activity (EVA) to retrieve film and data packages from the science bay on the side of the service module. Although the mission of Apollo 16 was terminated one day early, due to concern over several spacecraft malfunctions, all major objectives were accomplished through the ceaseless efforts of the mission support team and were made possible by the most rigorous preflight planning yet associated with an Apollo mission. Space Shuttle flights Following his return to Earth, Mattingly served in astronaut managerial positions in the Space Shuttle development program. salutes President Ronald Reagan, next to First Lady Nancy Reagan, after the STS-4 landing on July 4, 1982]] Mattingly was named to command STS-4, the fourth and final orbital test flight of the [[Space Shuttle Columbia|Space Shuttle Columbia]], launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 27, 1982 with Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr., as the pilot. This 7-day mission was designed to: further verify ascent and entry phases of shuttle missions; perform continued studies of the effects of long-term thermal extremes on the Orbiter subsystems; and conduct a survey of Orbiter-induced contamination on the Orbiter payload bay. Additionally, the crew operated several scientific experiments located in the Orbiter's cabin and in the payload bay. These experiments included the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System experiment designed to investigate the separation of biological materials in a fluid according to their surface electrical charge. This experiment was a pathfinder for the first commercial venture to capitalize on the unique characteristics of space. The crew is also credited with effecting an in-flight repair which enabled them to activate the first operational "Getaway Special" (composed of nine experiments that ranged from algae and duckweed growth in space to fruit fly and brine shrimp genetic studies). STS-4 completed 112 orbits of the Earth before landing on a concrete runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on July 4, 1982. STS-51-C, the first Space Shuttle Department of Defense mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on January 24, 1985. The crew included Ken Mattingly (spacecraft commander), Loren Shriver (pilot), James Buchli and Ellison Onizuka (Mission Specialists), and Gary Payton (DOD Payload Specialist). STS-51-C performed its DOD mission which included deployment of a modified Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) vehicle from the [[Space Shuttle Discovery|Space Shuttle Discovery]]. Landing occurred on January 27, 1985. Mattingly received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1972. Post-NASA In 1985, Mattingly retired from NASA and retired from the Navy in 1986 with the two-star rank of Rear admiral (upper half), and entered the private sector. He worked as a Director in Grumman's Space Station Support Division. He then headed the Atlas booster program for General Dynamics in San Diego, California. At Lockheed Martin he was Vice President in charge of the X-33 development program. He is currently working at Systems Planning and Analysis in Virginia. Organizations Mattingly is a member of many organizations. He is an associate fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; fellow, American Astronautical Society; and member, Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and the U.S. Naval Institute. Awards and honors Mattingly is a recipient of numerous awards. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medals (2); Johnson Space Center Certificate of Commendation (1970); JSC Group Achievement Award (1972); Navy Distinguished Service Medal; Navy Astronaut Wings; SETP Ivan C. Kincheloe Award (1972); Delta Tau Delta Achievement Award (1972); Auburn Alumni Engineers Council Outstanding Achievement Award (1972); AAS Flight Achievement Award for 1972; AIAA Haley Astronautics Award for 1973; Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded him the V. M. Komarov Diploma in 1973; Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1982). In media Mattingly was portrayed in the 1995 movie Apollo 13 by Gary Sinise. He was portrayed in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon by Željko Ivanek. References External links *Mattingly's official NASA biography *Astronautix biography of Ken Mattingly *Spacefacts biography of Ken Mattingly *[http://www.muldrake.com/mattingly.html 20th Century Pioneer - Ken Mattingly] *Mattingly at Spaceacts *Mattingly at Encyclopedia of Science * *Iven C. Kincheloe Awards *Mattingly at International Space Hall of Fame Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:1972 in spaceflight Category:1982 in spaceflight Category:1985 in spaceflight Category:American astronauts Category:Apollo program astronauts Category:United States Navy astronauts Category:United States Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Miami-Dade County, Florida Category:Auburn University alumni Category:U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni Category:United States Navy officers Category:United States Navy rear admirals (upper half) Category:United States Naval Aviators Category:American aviators Category:American engineers Category:American aerospace engineers Category:American test pilots Category:Aviators from Illinois Category:American businesspeople Category:Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal Category:Recipients of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal Category:20th-century American businesspeople